INAS Global Games

The INAS Global Games is a quadrennial global, international multi-sport event organised by the International Sports Federation for Persons with Intellectual Disability (INAS). First organised in 2004,[1] it is intended for elite competition in disability sports for athletes with intellectual disability and, since 2017, autism and down syndrome.[2] It is the largest sporting event of its type. Athletes must have received classification from INAS to compete.[3]

History

A precursor event was the World Games for Athletes with an Intellectual Disability held in 1989.[4] The competition was discontinued following the integration of athletes with intellectual disabilities into the Paralympics programme in 1996, though renewed exclusion following disability fabrication at the 2000 Summer Paralympics led to the relaunch as the INAS Global Games.[5] The first three INAS Global Games were hosted in Europe. The fourth edition in 2015 expanded to South America,[6] though INAS were forced to take over organisational duties due to the collapse of the local organising committee.[4] Australia won the hosting rights for the 2019 event, having led the medal rankings of the previous three.[7] Initially the competition was seen as a specialist event by other sports governing bodies, but the INAS athletics, swimming and table tennis competitions are now recognised and sanctioned by the main global bodies for those disability sports.[8]

The games is separate from the INAS World Championships, which are a series of sport-specific championships.

Editions

No.	Year	Dates	City	Country	Top Nation	Sports	Events	Countries	Athletes
—	1989		Härnösand	Sweden
1[9]	2004	July	Bollnäs	Sweden	Poland	6	91	40	1000+
2[10]	2009	7–11 June	Liberec	Czech Republic	Australia	9	97	34	800+
3[11]	2011	26 September – 4 October	Loano	Italy	Australia	9		30	700+
4[12]	2015	20–27 September	Various	Ecuador	Australia	8		35	600+[4]
5[13]	2019	12–19 October	Brisbane	Australia	Australia	11		50	814
6	2023

Number of athletes at the 2019 Global Games (highest to lowest)

INAS	Country	Athletes
AUS	Australia	166
FRA	France	83
JPN	Japan	57
POL	Poland	36
ESP	Spain	34
RUS	Russia	33
POR	Portugal	31
THA	Thailand	26
ECU	Ecuador	25
GBR	Great Britain	24
HKG	Hong Kong	23
USA	United States	22
KOR	South Korea	21
EGY	Egypt	20
CHN	China	20
ITA	Italy	19
INA	Indonesia	18
CZE	Czech Republic	16
MEX	Mexico	15
BRA	Brazil	14
MAC	Macau	13
MAS	Malaysia	12
ISR	Israel	11
NZL	New Zealand	8
KSA	Saudi Arabia	8
IND	India	7
SIN	Singapore	7
COL	Colombia	5
EST	Estonia	5
SRI	Sri Lanka	5
ISL	Iceland	4
MRI	Mauritius	4
SWE	Sweden	4
TPE	Chinese Taipei	3
DEN	Denmark	3
BEL	Belgium	2
HUN	Hungary	2
CAN	Canada	1
CPV	Cape Verde	1
CHI	Chile	1
FRO	Faroe Islands	1
FIN	Finland	1
GER	Germany	1
NOR	Norway	1
TUR	Turkey	1
Total	814

All-time medal table (2004 to 2019)

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Australia (AUS)	147	93	100	340
2	Poland (POL)	62	52	47	161
3	Hong Kong (HKG)	51	53	45	149
4	Portugal (POR)	43	25	35	103
5	Spain (ESP)	36	25	18	79
6	Russia (RUS)	34	13	9	56
7	France (FRA)	33	33	38	104
8	Japan (JPN)	23	48	56	127
9	Ukraine (UKR)	23	24	12	59
10	South Korea (KOR)	23	13	22	58
11	Great Britain (GBR)	22	22	15	59
12	Brazil (BRA)	16	15	19	50
13	Hungary (HUN)	15	28	25	68
14	South Africa (RSA)	14	18	34	66
15	Estonia (EST)	13	10	6	29
16	Ecuador (ECU)	12	8	10	30
17	Netherlands (NED)	10	11	13	34
18	Czech Republic (CZE)	9	13	14	36
19	Italy (ITA)	8	10	14	32
20	Colombia (COL)	7	0	2	9
21	Sweden (SWE)	6	9	5	20
22	Egypt (EGY)	6	2	3	11
23	Tunisia (TUN)	5	5	8	18
24	Chinese Taipei (TPE)	5	2	3	10
25	United States (USA)	4	19	11	34
26	Venezuela (VEN)	4	6	6	16
27	Mexico (MEX)	4	5	3	12
28	Iceland (ISL)	4	3	4	11
29	Puerto Rico (PUR)	3	3	2	8
30	Cape Verde (CPV)	3	0	2	5
31	Croatia (CRO)	2	5	1	8
32	Indonesia (INA)	2	2	1	5
33	Thailand (THA)	2	1	0	3
34	Israel (ISR)	2	0	0	2
35	Faroe Islands (FAR)	1	5	0	6
36	Greece (GRE)	1	2	1	4
37	Canada (CAN)	1	1	4	6
38	Iran (IRI)	1	0	3	4
39	Malaysia (MAS)	1	0	2	3
40	Chile (CHI)	1	0	0	1
41	Belgium (BEL)	0	4	1	5
42	Macau (MAC)	0	3	1	4
43	Singapore (SGP)	0	3	0	3
44	Argentina (ARG)	0	2	2	4
	Sri Lanka (SRI)	0	2	2	4
46	Finland (FIN)	0	1	1	2
47	India (IND)	0	0	3	3
48	China (CHN)	0	0	1	1
	Norway (NOR)	0	0	1	1
Totals (49 nations)		659	599	605	1863

Sports

• Athletics () (2004 to present)
• Basketball () (2004 to present)
• Cricket () (demonstration sport in 2019)
• Cycling () (2009 to present)
• Futsal () (2004 to present)
• Judo () (2009)
• Rowing () (2009 to present)
• Swimming () (2004 to present)
• Table tennis () (2004 to present)
• Taekwondo () (demonstration sport in 2015)
• Tennis () (2004 to present)

See also

• Special Olympics
• IWAS World Games
• Deaflympics
• Invictus Games

Other INAS sporting championships

• INAS World Athletics Championships
• INAS World Swimming Championships

References

1. "International Federation for Intellectual Impairment Sport: Global Games". inas.org. Retrieved 31 January 2018.
2. History of INAS. INAS. Retrieved 2019-09-21.
3. Etchells, Daniel (2019-06-25). in athletics, swimming and table tennis confirmed for 2019 INAS Global Games. Inside the Games. Retrieved 2019-09-21.
4. Butler, Nick (2015-09-29). Inas considering legal action after "collapse" of Global Games Organising Committee. Inside the Games. Retrieved 2019-09-21.
5. How the Paralympics checks intellectual disability. BBC (2012-08-30). Retrieved 2019-09-21.
6. The 4th Inas Global Games 2015. Sport and Dev. Retrieved 2019-09-21.
7. INAS Global Games 2019. Brisbane City Council. Retrieved 2019-09-21.
8. INAS Global Games recognised by ITTF. Paralympic (2019-01-10). Retrieved 2019-09-21.
9. "2004 INAS Global Games Results Book" (PDF). VIRTUS Sport. 8 March 2020.
10. "2009 INAS Global Games Results Book" (PDF). VIRTUS Sport. 8 March 2020.
11. "2011 INAS Global Games Results Book" (PDF). VIRTUS Sport. 8 March 2020.
12. "2015 INAS Global Games Results Book" (PDF). VIRTUS Sport. 8 March 2020.
13. "2019 INAS Global Games Results Book" (PDF). VIRTUS Sport. 8 March 2020.